Mysterious objects found in the Milky Way fit the bill for theorised “radiation-harvesting megastructures”, scientists said after making the breakthrough discovery.
Dyson spheres, theoretical megastructures proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960, were hypothesised to be constructed by advanced civilisations to harvest the energy of host stars.
It’s thought that these structures absorb visible light from the star and emit “waste-heat” as infrared radiation, creating a detectable signature.
A study published on May 6 in the Monthly Notices of theRoyal Astronomical Societyrevealed seven potential candidates for Dyson spheres, raising eyebrows in the world of academia.
Led by Matías Suazo from Uppsala University, the international team used data from the Gaia, 2MASS, and WISE astronomical surveys to identify these potential megastructures.
The study, titled “Project Hephaistos – II. Dyson sphere candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE,” used a sophisticated data analysis pipeline to sift through a sample of approximately five million objects.
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